I write so I will remember

     I always claim to be horrible at keeping a journal, I mean look at how much I update my blog. Case and point. The past nine months or so I have packed up and moved several different places and through these moves I always find journals from the past. I guess I am better than I thought at keeping a journal. These journals are filled with my life. They chronicle the exciting days of a middle school and high school student, the hurts of losing family members, the move to South Carolina to go to college, the prayers of a home sick college student, the secret details of relationships both real and imaginary, the accomplishments of graduation and getting a big girl job, the wedding days of many of my closest friends, the births of three precious children who have changed my outlook in life, the bible verses that encourage a seeking soul, the friends that have been made and will last a lifetime.  These journals are my life. They may never be read by anyone, but they remind me where I was and where I am.

    There are two journals I would like to share with you today. The first was created a year ago and shared in this post. It is a day-by-day journal. I started January 1, 2011 writing something about the day. Sometime it was simply about the weather where other days I wrote about my friend having a baby. The neat thing about this journal is as I start back at January 1, 2012 I am able to see what I wrote the year before. It is so cool to reminisce about what happened a year ago and see how life has changed.

   The second journal I want to introduce to you is one that began on May 22, 2011. That was the first day of the summer for me. This journal is filled with many sermon notes, prayer requests and praises from a summer working at Student Life. Not only does the journal chronicle my summer but it also chronicles the months after the summer. The months of curiosity, searching and seeking the will of God. It is filled with cards of encouragement, Bible verses, pictures and prayers. This journal only covers about 6 months of my life but is so precious to me. I can't wait to read through it years from now seeing how God worked in my life.

    I write this not to say look at me I journal, but to encourage you to look into journaling. It is something that can help you look at your life and remember.

Pinterest Creations

A couple months ago I proclaimed my love for pinterest in a blog. Over Christmas break I was able to put my love for pinterest in to good use with several projects.

The first project consisted of a frame from the thrift store, dollar store ornaments and ribbon. A very easy project, but also very cute.

I am in love with doilies and canvas so I put them together to make a festive picture!

My best friend is OBSESSED with Owls so her christmas present came in this lovely owl bag with baby owls. Also everything in the bag had owls on it. It was a very Happy Owl-iday!

Love, love, love bracelets! Who knew hex nuts and string could make this beauty?

That is it for now but don't worry, my sewing machine is now reunited with me! 

Waiting

A few months ago I was pulling into a friend's house while trying to find something to listen to on the radio when I heard a song called While I am Waiting by John Waller. I was instantly intrigued because for the past several months and still now I am in a stage of life where I am waiting for God to reveal to me what is next in my life. I am not the best at waiting, not many people are, but I have learned that waiting on the Lord is a time to grow. Through this song and a lot of prayer I have come to realize I am waiting for a reason and while I am waiting I need to continue to serve the Lord and seek Him. God has me waiting for a reason and while I wait I need to take hold of the opportunities that are here in front of me now and waiting will not be so hard. Below is the song, it has powerful lyrics and I am thankful it came on the radio a few months ago although I have not heard it since.


While I am Waiting 
By John Waller


I'm waiting
I'm waiting on You, Lord
And I am hopeful
I'm waiting on You, Lord
Though it is painful
But patiently, I will wait

I will move ahead, bold and confident
Taking every step in obedience
While I'm waiting
I will serve You
While I'm waiting
I will worship
While I'm waiting
I will not faint
I'll be running the race
Even while I wait

I'm waiting
I'm waiting on You, Lord
And I am peaceful
I'm waiting on You, Lord
Though it's not easy
But faithfully, I will wait
Yes, I will wait
I will serve You while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting
I will serve You while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting
I will serve you while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting on You, Lord

My Birthday Week in Pictures!

I love my birthday! I look forward to it all year long! Birthdays are just so much fun even when you start getting old. I like to celebrate my birthday for a week because it only comes once a year why would I need to celebrate for just one day? So here is my birthday week in pictures disclaimer some of these pictures were taken with my phone that doesn't take pictures very well.

Liam and I had a bonding time over the computer at work. He loved typing and acting like a big boy!

My birthday week started off with a package in the mail from one of my best friends Jessie! She made this beautiful scarf!  I love getting mail especially when I doesn't involve requesting money.

On my birthday eve I had the privilege to spend it with this handsome man! This is Liam, he turned 3 month on my birthday eve, his mommy is my best friend Jenna. I absolutely love seeing Liam and Jenna almost every day it has been such a treat!

On my birthday I was greeted with many calls and texts from my sweet friends whom I love and miss dearly! I also was greeted with a Pumpkin Spice Latte and a slice of Pumpkin Bread. After a great morning the family and I headed to downtown Cincinnati (the city I was born in 26 years ago)

Everything was decorated for Christmas, it was so pretty!

They were giving out free hugs at Fountain Square!

My brother and I at Fountain Square

Where else would a girl want to go on her birthday? Unfortunately nothing was bought :(

The night of my birthday was my work's Christmas party (I am used to having Christmas parties on my birthday, it's what happens when you are born 9 days before Christmas. I just act like they are my birthday parties too!) This is Jenna and me donning our festive apparel. (Yes we won a prize!)

I continued to celebrate my birthday the next day when I took Roma to see Santa for the first time! She loved it...maybe it was all the treats Santa had.

For years Jenna and I would have sleepovers at her parent's house so why would we change things. Yes, we had a movie night slumber birthday party. It was awesome! They take their movie nights seriously at the Rabinowitz house!

I really had an awesome birthday and I can't thank my friends and family enough for their well wishes! I am so blessed to have so many loving and caring people in my life. I am excited to see what 26 will bring!

Putting my Pintrest Addiction to Good Use

At the end of the summer (I need  to blog about the summer) I was introduced to Pintrest by my two good friend's Leigh and Audrey and now I am addicted! Pintrest is a great site of many ideas and styles. Instead of bookmarking a page you pin it. You can follow people's pins and what not. Check it out, it is great and if you want me to invite you I will be more than happy to.

Anyway one of my favorite sections is the DIY section. I love making things and since I am jobless (I might blog about that too) I needed some ideas for birthday and Christmas presents (Yes, Christmas, I don't have much to do) So I put my addiction to Pintrest into action

First I made wrap around bracelets. Apparently these bracelets are like hundreds of dollars and very popular. I thought they were cute and made a great little present. (the pictures didn't turn out great but you get the idea)

The second project I took on was a leather bow cuff. I absolutely love this cuff, in fact I wore it today and will be keeping this one!  

It is just so cute and so easy to make!

I have more material for other things to make, but didn't get to yet. Hope you have been inspired to check out Pintrest and don't blame me if you get addicted. Oh and I will blog about the summer soon, God did and is still doing amazing things!

It's not a secret anymore

For the past several months let's say about 6-8 months I feel like I have been hiding a huge part of my life. I am pretty much an open book. I can keep secrets but I don't like to because I love sharing things with my friends so I can see their reaction and so we can walk down the road together. Like I said I have been hiding a part of my life for several months for many different reasons but now I can tell you the full story....I no longer have to keep a secret.

It all begins the summer of 2010. I was sensing God calling me to leave what I knew and was comfortable with. I didn't really understand what He had in mind and frankly I was scared so I just tried to forget about the sensing but it became stronger and stronger. I didn't know what to do but I knew I needed to do something.

Through a lot of praying, listening. talking, crying, I applied for a summer position at Student Life. Before you start asking the many questions I was asked during this process I would like to go ahead and answer them. Yes a summer position. Yes from May to August. What will you do with your full time job...quit...if that is what I feel like God is calling me to do. My apartment? I will sublet or move out My dog? Usually the first question...she can stay with a family who loves her dearly this summer. and the last question WHY? simple because God told me to and I have a peace about it that I can't explain and I know it is from God.

Now that those questions are answered I can continue I applied for a summer position at Student Life, interviewed for the position and in March found out I was accepted for the position. This process was a little bit longer than the one sentence I gave it but you see where I am going. Through the process God continued to remind me of His faithfulness. I clinged to God more than ever during this time that it has grown my relationship with Him in so many different ways. I learned that His timing is perfect, He knows EXACTLY what He is doing, and obedience is more than sacrifice along with so much more.

So now let me answer the rest of the questions. I leave Florence, SC May 22nd. I will be back to visit...to live I don't know. I can honestly say that God only knows what my life will look like after the summer. Saying this, yes, I resigned from my job. I know it's scary, but I always go back to the peace I feel from God. I moved out of my apartment, my dog is staying with her second family and will be spoiled all summer long she might not want to live with me again.

I had to keep a lot of this hush hush during this process because of my job and the decisions I had to make. Nothing was done without many conversations with God. I have learned so much about myself and who I am in Christ. God has me right in his palm and is guiding my every step.

This summer is going to be amazing I will be serving alongside of 23 other beleivers all over the west and southwest of the USA. To say I am excited is an understatement. I am ready to see how God's plan unfolds in the next couple months, His good and perfect plan. I can't wait to share it with the world!

My type of Journal

I have always had good intentions of keeping a journal. I have a ton of very cute notebooks with a couple days or a month or two of journal entries but never a full journal. I love to go back and read the entries and go back to what my life was at that certain time. Sometimes I laugh at how big of a deal I made over certain things and sometimes I cry over the events that took place. Either way I love to see how God has molded and changed me in the past several years. This January I had every notion to keep a journal. I had just turned 25 and thought it would be cool to record this pivitol year in my life. I knew that this commitment would be a little much for me and I would probably only have the month of Jaunary in the journal but I was determined to follow through. While I was reading one of the many blogs I read, I came accross a really neat journal idea. It is a one sentence journal for each day.

I got a cute basket from the $1 Store
Cut Notecard in half and put the date on all 365 notecards
Then I found old thank you cards and cut the front of them to divide the months
Finally I started Journaling

Each night I write 2011: And whatever happened that day

Sometimes it is a simple verse that I came accross that day, other days I write about an event that happened, like my best friend telling me she is pregnant or getting an email that changed the course of my life and other days I simply put that I was really tired that day and needed an extra cup of coffee.

The neat thing about this journal is that I will have room to put entries from 2012, 2013 and possibly 2014 how cool will it be to look back and see how different or similar each day was a year or two or three ago. I have already gone back and read January's entries and am amazed at what God has done in my life in just 3 months.

So I encourage you, if you like to journal but just don't have the time or committment to journaling try it this way. It is fun, simple and I assure you, you will never have a problem thinking of something to write.